In regards to the Owners corporation trust account, can the directors of strata company be the signatories of OC trust fund without informing owners corporation? – Ira, NSW

Q: In regards to the Owners corporation trust account, can the directors of strata company be the signatories of OC trust fund without informing owners corporation? In the contract it says, establish and maintain OC trust account are included in the agreed service fee. But now the strata company will charge AUD$1,500 for moving our term deposit to better performing bank. Is that even allowed? We requested to amend the signatories so the committee members can be included in the signatories but the strata company said we can’t do it because they have full authority as per their contract. This is one example where we’re being forced to choose the strata company’s preferred vendor. What can committees or owners corp do to not allow this to happen?

 

A: For the trust account the company is the signatory as they hold the funds in trust. The owners corporation can open their own account to which committee members can be signatories but be aware that the manager will not then have oversight of the account.

Setting up an account with a financial institution that the manager is not already set up with will take quite a lot of time as they will need to prove ID etc so it is common that a fee is charged for this.